'Ant-Man' Extended Preview & Featurette: Stealing For A Good Cause

Ant-Man is a project that Marvel Studios has been developing for several years, largely under the guiding hand of filmmaker Edgar Wright - before Wright stepped down at the last moment, allowing for director Peyton Reed to take over and re-imagine the movie as he saw fit. The superhero adventure is due to open in U.S. theaters soon (at the time of writing this) and early buzz indicates that the film will finish Phase II of Marvel's Cinematic Universe on a good note.

Reed's movie, like the Phase II films Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy before it, blends superhero/comic book movie tropes with those of another genre - in this case, the heist genre. Hence, certain early reactions have likened Ant-Man as being the equivalent to 'Marvel's Ocean's Eleven', so to speak.

You get a taste of that in the above Ant-Man extended preview, which shows 'master thief' Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) undergoing a special 'goodbye ritual' before he leaves prison. The banter between Scott and his fellow inmates here - as well as his exchange with his longtime co-worker, Luis (Michael Peña) thereafter - does indeed have a light comical vibe that brings to mind such heist films as the Ocean's series (or something like The Italian Job).

The same goes for the following Ant-Man featurette, which further examines the heist story elements in the movie - while, at the same, briefly introducing the other members of Scott's criminal team, including Luis, Dave (Tip 'T.I.' Harris), and Kurt (David Dastmalchian).

Of course, because Ant-Man is a Marvel superhero movie, the 'job' Scott (and, eventually, his team) are recruited to handle involves the Yellowjacket suit technology created by Darren Cross (Cory Stoll) - derived from the size-changing suit technology engineered by Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). A good chunk of the revised Ant-Man screenplay was penned by Rudd too, which is why the dialogue and characters in this particular heist story feels more tailor-made for Rudd's own comedic sensibilities (in their final form, anyway).

Reed's Ant-Man, as indicated before, doesn't look to revolutionize the Marvel formula, but it should deliver some solid family-friendly humor with some unique shrinking superhero action that we haven't seen in the MCU before. As a bonus for hardcore Marvel fans, there will be some additional foundation-laying for big future events and developments (see: Evangeline Lilly's Hope van Dyne becoming The Wasp one day).